Candles for a Canine
by Cerridwen3
Summary: It's Pippin's fourteenth birthday, and Merry has come to visit him. Spectular birthday cakes and huge brown dogs abound.


Candles for a Canine  
  
By Cerridwen  
  
Author's notes: Another challenge fic, this time from Lindelea including the words: cake, birthday, dog, slippery soapy floor. Thanks, Lin!  
  
When Merry stepped out of the family carriage to a lovely panoramic view of the Great Smials, he fully expected the armful of excited young Hobbit he found himself with. However, the second armful of large, brown, barking dog was not something he had prepared himself for. He let out a rather undignified shriek, as the monstrous animal put its paws on his shoulder and moved towards his face, completely trumping his young cousin who was giggling in strangely light manner considering that they were both being attacked by a dog that was bigger than they were themselves. However, the dog satisfied itself with covering Merry's face with drool, lapping its impressive tongue over his cheeks and eyes and hair until Merry pushed it away, wiping his face on his sleeve.  
  
"Where did *that* come from?" He asked his countenance bewildered and still slightly wary.  
  
Pippin, who stood only a head higher than the dog's mighty brown shoulders, grinned widely and scratched the animal behind its ears. "He's Everard's. Found him nosing about behind the kitchens for food and made friends with him." Another loving pat. "They named him Adalgrim after Great Grandfather. And where's my birthday greeting?"  
  
"Yes, Merry where *are* your manners?" Came the warmly smiling voice of Saradoc as he approached and gave his nephew a squeeze on the shoulder. "It's not everyday our young Peregrin turns 14, after all."  
  
Pippin grinned widely. "Hullo, Uncle Doc." His face lit up. "I have your presents in my bedroom; shall I go and fetch them?"  
  
Merry, who had been eyeing the great brown dog nervously, broke in to give Pippin a grin. "Not yet, Pip. Wait until the party. And happy birthday, of course." He edged away from the dog so that even hugging Pippin he would be able to keep an eye on the monstrosity and knelt to embrace the lad. When he pulled away, he saw that Pippin looked perplexed for the first time.  
  
"Where's Auntie Esmeralda, then?"  
  
Merry put a hand on Pippin's shoulder and the three of them went into the Smials, bustling with birthday activity, quite eager to get away from the dog. "She has a nasty bit of cold, and had to stay home, but she sends you her love and expects a fine present from you when we get home. Hoy!" Merry glanced ruefully at his father who had just given him a light smack to the head. Saradoc just smiled and whistled a cheerful birthday tune as he strolled in through the open door and into the corridor.  
  
Merry faintly heard a, "Well, hullo, Regie! How've you been, chap?" and saw his father disappearing off to chat with Uncle Reginard. Pippin grabbed his forearm, face shining with excitement.  
  
"You must come and have a look at the cake they've made! It's just splendid, and covered with more white crème icing than you could imagine!" Pippin's expression was one of rapture and he led a grinning Merry to the kitchens.  
  
The cake was indeed a marvel. Four large tiers of fluffy white cake, encased in the creamiest of icings Merry had ever seen. Blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries adorned each layer, and a sizable mound of crème with a shiny red cherry topped the creation off.  
  
"It's wonderful!" Merry enthused to a sparklingly happy Pippin. "I can't wait to have a taste."  
  
"Oh, I can't see eating it, Merry." Pippin said, drooping a bit. "It's so lovely, and the cooks worked so hard on it, after all." He pursed his lips, obviously battling against the combating desire to dive headlong into the marvellous cake, and the appreciation of its spectacular beauty.  
  
Merry could only laugh at him. "Oh, Pip, you really are a nut of a wee thing, aren't you? That's the whole reason behind a cake like this. So you can eat it and enjoy it." He looked hungrily at the thing himself and then said to Pippin, "Come and we'll go out to the berry bushes and see if there's any left. We can at least have the cake toppings right now, after all."  
  
He and Pippin left through the back door of the kitchens, chattering excitedly about the fine party planned for that evening.  
  
***  
  
"All right, Merry. You take that side and keep it level, so's we don't go dropping it." Said Everard who had just returned from feeding Adalgrim his supper. "We're going to put it on that one empty table where the presents were stacked."  
  
Merry nodded, readjusting his grip on the large heavy confection, already wearing a pair of finely embroidered braces that had been his birthday gift from Pippin. "Right, then. Let's go." He and Everard started out toward the long dining hall, and had almost reached the door when a great mass of fur and drool crashed into his legs and he went face down, hold of the marvellous cake, with all of its fourteen candles, relinquished as he met face first with the hard floor.  
  
A second later he felt a great wave of sticky smashed cake splattering him and groaned in dismay. He hardly dared to raise his head, but when he did the sight awaiting him sent his stomach plummeting down somewhere round his ankles. Pippin's birthday cake, that beautiful mound of sugar, and crème, and berries had been reduced to a goopy pile on the stone floor, surrounded by the flyaway smatterings of icing and cake crumbs, while in the middle, happily eating the mess was Adalgrim.  
  
The kitchen doors burst open, and Pippin appeared, flanked by nearly the entire party of gathered Hobbits, and a collective gasp was heard throughout.  
  
Merry looked guiltily to Pippin as Everard shooed Adalgrim back outdoors. "Pip-"  
  
"Didn't manage to shut that blasted door all the way when I came in from feeding him." Muttered a repentant Everard, eyes trained purposely on the floor, before he too raised his guilt ridden eyes to those of the birthday lad.  
  
And as much surprise to himself as everyone in the room, Pippin prefaced his burst of hysterical laughter with a loud snort, then doubled over in his intense amusement.  
  
Merry and Everard shared a befuddled look, and Merry got to his feet on the sticky floor. "Er. Pip?"  
  
Pippin gasped between his giggles, and Merry wondered if he hadn't secretly gotten into a bit of his father's brandy.  
  
"Didn't I say, Merry, that I didn't want to eat that?" He grinned. "Adalgrim's done it for me!"  
  
Merry didn't quite understand what was so particularly amusing about this, but smiled anyway, relieved he hadn't crushed Pippin's birthday spirits along with the glorious cake.  
  
The clean up took rather long than expected as first Pippin, and then Merry found it quite amusing to slide about on the slippery soapy floor as though it were an iced over lake. This continued until Uncle Paladin reprimanded them, albeit with a twinkle in his eyes and the barest of smiles on his face as he told them to hurry along with the cleaning, and then get to bed.  
  
That night, as Merry leaned over to tuck Pippin firmly into his bed he gave him a light kiss on the forehead as he hadn't done since Pippin had turned nine years old and decided himself much to grown up for such things. "So your birthday was all right, even though Everard and I destroyed your cake?"  
  
Pippin smiled sleepily at him. "It was a wonderful birthday, Merry. And to be honest I had more fun cleaning up the cake than I would've had ea-ea- eating it." He replied, trying and failing to stifle a large yawn.  
  
Merry grinned, "Good, then. Sleep well, Pip, and happy birthday." He gave his nodding cousin another kiss on the forehead then turned to leave for the guestrooms.  
  
"Merry?" A sleep-filled voice caught him and he looked back at Pippin, who was peering at him from beneath half-lidded eyes. "You can sleep here if you-" Another huge yawn, "It's a dreadfully long way back to the guestrooms, and my beds big enough for the both of us as long as you promise not to snore." Merry chuckled. Sharing a bed with his older cousin was another of the novelties that Pippin had forsaken upon turning nine, and the offer brought those long ago days back to his mind and he slid into bed beside Pippin.  
  
"Mrr." Pippin snuggled wearily into Merry's embrace. "Night, Merr."  
  
"Night, Pip." Merry replied, a drowsy smile on his face.  
  
And they both fell into a warm sleep, images of monster dogs attacking unwary birthday cakes flitting through their heads. 


End file.
